Dive Brief:

• Florida’s governor is pushing for state legislation that would lower the cost of college textbooks and freeze graduate program tuition.
• Gov. Rick Scott is making the proposal his No. 1 priority for the legislative session that begins next month, the Associated Press reports.
• University leaders say tuition for graduate programs should be allowed to reflect market demand, because graduate program degrees lead to high-paying jobs.

Dive Insight:

This proposal, along with earlier moves to limit tuition hikes for state schools, is not making the Republican governor very popular with college administrators. Part of Scott’s proposal is to make college textbooks exempt from sales taxes. Also, colleges would have to use the same textbooks in undergraduate courses for at least three years, and inform students prior to registration about what the textbooks will cost. The graduate school tuition freeze would lock in the price as of July 1, and the boards of higher education institutions would have to give public notice of any meeting where a vote is planned for raising fees.